Three Deer freshmen headed to Region III girls meet

Published 8:01 am, Wednesday, April 29, 2015

By Robert Avery

ravery@hcnonline.com

HOUSTON - The Deer Park coaching staff over at the north campus knew they had a good freshman girls track and field team, but they didn’t realize how good until last week’s Area meet at the old North Shore High School track stadium.

Unbelievably, three first-year athletes find themselves just one step away from competing at the state championship meet after the trio clinched a Top-4 berth in their respective races.

“We have a strong freshman class. All three girls are hard workers and I’m super proud of their hard work paying off. We’re excited to be going to regionals,” coach Dan Lounsbury said, taking in the meet from the infield grass.

Emily West became the third freshman of the night to keep her season alive when she qualified in the 200-meter run with a run of 25.83, surpassing her previous best of 26.01. She won the 21-6A district title with a spring of 26.30.

Admitting she was nervous before the race’s start, the butterflies however quickly disappeared and her competitive nature took over by time they reached the turn and started down the straightaway to the finish line.

“All my nerves went away and I was really pumped,” West said. “Actually, I was a little scared coming around the curve because I saw the girls next to me. But I stayed confident and pushed through.”

“She was super nervous and we were just trying to calm her. We just didn’t want her to do anything crazy like false start. We kept repeating to her that she deserved to be here, she won district and if she ran her race, good things would happen to her,” Lounsbury said.

Olivier claimed the fourth and final spot in the 100-meter hurdles with a persona record of 16.31 seconds, nipping South Houston’s Keia Davis and her 16.41 time. The fastest time was 15.59 seconds, set by a Pearland hurdler, followed by La Porte’s Jillian Turner and Dawson’s Taylar Priar at 16.12.

“The important part is your start. If you get over your first hurdle, you should get over all your hurdles. A lot of times, if you mess up your first hurdle, it’ll mess up your whole race,” Olivier said.

Brittanii Mulhle advanced to regionals in the discus and shot put, starting with the fourth-place toss of 110 feet, 1-and-a-half inches in the discus and 35 feet, 7 inches in the shot.

Baytown Sterling’s Sidnee Land won both events with efforts of 133.5 feet and just over 39 feet in the shot.